Review: The Dark Tower Fails As A Movie Adaptation from A Great Series by Stephen King
One of the biggest regret in living is watching your favorite novel turns into shitty movie adaptation. It also works for manga, comic, or any literature. The latest testament to that statement is “The Dark Tower”, a Hollywood effort to adapt 8 novel series by Stephen King. Directed by Nikolaj Arcel, the project used to be ambitious and once it was going to be a TV series (oh how great the idea if it did come true). The story tells about the last gunslinger who had a task to watch over the dark tower, named Roland Deschain (Idris Elba). His assignment however had to be disrupted by his arch-enemy, Walter o’Dim or The Man In Black played by Matthew McConaughey. The dark tower is a mythical as well as physical form of structure that supports all realities and as the last person who could take care of it, Roland had to face various obstacles including finding the right apprentice to watch over it if he failed during his quest. The film took place in New York and a parallel universe where Roland lives called Mid World. As opposed to the expansive 8 book series, the film actually only has the last series as its source. So you can imagine, how short the introduction to the realm of Stephen King’s fantasy series.
If you are not the book reader of this series, you might not be puzzled with the plot of the whole movie. Plotholes are plenty though, with one scene to another sometimes leaving a bigger question in our part. The technical aspect of the movie is pretty well executed like the visual effect and such. The acting from Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey are superb, there is no doubt about their experiences as actors. You may find a little difference from the novel to the movie in terms of characters, with the appearance of Roland’s apprentice, Jake, played by Tom Taylor. “The Dark Tower” has a lot of potential to be a great movie franchise or series, sadly they have to do Stephen King injustice. The strong fantasy element could not be translated well in this 97 minutes movie. Watch it if you want to get your daily dose of Idris Elba or Matthew, but better save it for either “American Made” or “Baby Driver”. Both movies will be reviewed on our website soon!
Rating : 6.5/10
Reviewer: Intan Maharani/Editor: Novita Widia
